For one Person a Day in all 1_s._ 4-1/2_d._ For Whole Family 11_s._ For the Whole Family 365 days L200 15_s._ For Butter, 2 Firkins at 68 lb. apiece, 16_d._ L 9 1_s._ a lb. For Sugar. Cannot be less than 10_s._ a Month or 4 weeks especially when there are children. L 6 10_s._ For Candles but 3 a Night Summer & Winter for Ordinary & Extraordinary occasions at 15_d._ for 9 in the lb. L 7 12_s._ .01 For Sand 20_s._ Soap 40_s._ Washing Once in 4 weeks at 3_s._ a time with 3 Meals a Day at 2_s._more L 6 5_s._ For One Maids Wages L 10 For Shoes after the Rate of each 3 Pair in a year at 9_s._ a Pair for 7 Persons, the Maid finding her own L 9 09_s._ ----------------- In all L249 12_s._ 5_d._ No House Rents Mentioned Nor Buying Carting Pyling or Sawing Firewood No Coffee Tea nor Chocolate No Wine nor Cyder nor any other Spirituous Liquor No Pipes Tobacco Spice nor Sweetmeats No Hospitality or Occasional Entertaining either Gentlemen Strangers Relatives or Friends No Acts of Charity nor Contributions for Pious Uses No Pocket Expenses either for Horse Hire Travelling or Convenient Recreations No Postage for Letters or Numberless other Occasions No Charges of Nursing No Schooling for Children No Buying of Books of any Sort or Pens Ink & Paper No Lyings In No Sickness, Nothing to Apothecary or Doctor No Buying Mending or Repairing Household Stuff or Utensils Nothing to the Simstress nor to the Taylor nor to the Barber, nor to the Hatter nor to the Shopkeeper & Therefore no Cloaths." Certainly we gain from this "scheam" a very clear notion of the style of living of this genteel Boston family. There is, of course, no possibility of exactly picturing the serving of a meal in early days; but one peculiarity is known of the dinner--the pudding came first. Hence the old saying, "I came in season--in pudding-time." In an account of a Sunday dinner given at the house of John Adams, as late as 1817, the first course was a pudding of Indian corn, molasses, and butter; the second, veal, bacon, neck of mutton, and vegetables. For many years the colonists "dined exact at noon," and on farms even half an hour earlier. On Saturday all ate fish for dinner. Judge Sewall frequently speaks of his Saturday dinner of fish. Fish days had been prescribed by the King in England, in order that the fisheries might not fail of support, as was feared on account of the increased consumption of meat induced by the reformation in religion. New Englanders loyally followed the mandate, but ate cod-fish on Saturdays, since the Papists ate fish on Fridays.